Introduction: A World of Sound

A futuristic world. A world of flying cities, impossible feats of technology and genetically redesigned humans for whom near-immortality is the way of life. A world without war, without hunger, without poverty, without global warming. And though the people of this world perceive it through with the five ordinary senses, in truth, there is only one sense - for this world is made of sound, and all perceptions come from innumerable strings, constantly vibrating, defining, shaping the world. And so it's a world where sounds have the power to shape reality, where the dropping of a pin could make a spark, or Beethoven's Symphony #9 could raise a mountain.

Humans have learned to direct sounds and to use these strings to shape reality to their will. A mage need not be a musician or an orator - a mage can, with sufficient training, play the strings of reality to change the world. But these strings are not physical (since, technically, nothing is, as it's all sound), and so they are manipulated with small amounts of psychic energy - something every spellcaster (mage, musician or orator) learns to do. And so with the ability to manipulate reality, both from within the design or by changing the design itself, this race has everything it could possibly want or imagine - the world is a Utopia.

Or, close enough, at least. While the environment is perfect, the organization is not, and there's the small issue of space travel. In space, there is no sound - and so in space, there is no reality. The further away from the world you get, the fewer strings of reality there are, and eventually you and your ship just sort of… dissolve. While the government of this world largely goes ignored, space travel is an issue hotly debated, and scientists have long claimed that traversing space is impossible, and pointless - there's nothing out there.

How could there be, when reality is made of sound?